Malawi tank

[mfdrookie516]

Not really. The picture is pretty blurry. If you could get some better pics, we could probably ID them. Just looking, I'm pretty sure I did see a peacock over towards the left. Even if you do have a mix of mbuna, peacocks, and haps, I would still feed them just a high quality cichlid pellet.

 

[Fishfan321]

Cheers, I don't feed frozen foods like blood worm as apparently malawi can not digest it properly? I generally feed them pellets for cichlid and flake every now and then. Never done veg before as I don't really know what I am doing. I know it sounds stupid, but do you cook veg first before feeding to the fish? Or just let them defrost? Or even give it to them frozen?

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Some you have to blanch like spinach, but if you get a frozen bag of peas warm them and throw a few of them in. If you cut potatoes really small you can put that in there too. I chop all of the vegetables at one time and freeze them in a frozen baggie. That way you can just break some off whenever.

from, Adam

 

[Chris182]

Here are a few snap shots as you can see the window is very much dominant lol

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[mfdrookie516]

Oh ok nice. I see mostly mbuna (red zebras, yellow labs, auratus), some haps (electric blue, venustus), and possibly either some sort of peacock or an OB zebra.

 

[Chris182]

Do you have any pics of the fish? I cant really tell from the photo. I also was given bum advice from the LFS and am currently trying to upgrade to a 125 gallon and I will have to rehome several of my fish. Like half LOL

I have a feeling I may have to do the sam thing! I'm gutted really as they told me to overstock them and to have about 20-22 which is what I did, although I sneaked a bichir in there lol.

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[Chris182]

Oh ok nice. I see mostly mbuna (red zebras, yellow labs, auratus), some haps (electric blue, venustus), and possibly either some sort of peacock or an OB zebra.

Sweet cheers for that. Do you know if this mixture will be ok together? Also do any of those get particularly big?

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[Chris182]

Also I was told two are dolphins?

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[carey]

I have a feeling I may have to do the sam thing! I'm gutted really as they told me to overstock them and to have about 20-22 which is what I did, although I sneaked a bichir in there lol.

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I am also overstocking to control aggression, thats a true method to use. It's a bit controversial but it works in mbuna tanks. It's just the makeup that you have to worry about and size. I have two giraffes that will get to 9 inches so they will have to go just on that fact alone not even the male/female ratio thing.

 

[mfdrookie516]

The haps get quite large. Too large for a 4' tank IMO. Venustus get 12" or bigger. Not quite sure about the electric blue. The auratus may cause issues, or it may not. They're known to be quite the aggressive little fish, though I've never had issues in my 150g.

I didn't see any dolphins (commonly referred to as Moorii around here), but I could be mistaken. The blue ones with the vertical bars look to me like electric blues (Sciaenochromis ahli). Can you get a picture of what you were told were the dolphins?

 

[Chris182]

Cheers. The first pic is supposed to be a dolphin, the blue one. Which one is the Venustus?

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[carey]

Venustus is the giraffe colored ones

 

[Chris182]

Venustus is the giraffe colored ones

This one? 12"!!! Bloody **** excuse my language, and they didn't think to mention that to me when they sold me it then lol. So what one is the hap? That also gets to big for my tank does it?

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[fibreheart]

I learned something neat. Since I have Haps(meat) and Mbuna(veggie) I went and got NLS Regular and NLS Veggie. I mixed these in together and serve as one. The Haps only eat the regular and the Mbuna will eat the veggie pellets first and move to the reg pellets after. They know what they like

 

[fibreheart]

This one? 12"!!! Bloody **** excuse my language, and they didn't think to mention that to me when they sold me it then lol. So what one is the hap? That also gets to big for my tank does it?

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She is very pretty I'm not ready for them yet. I've read the stories Lol

 

[carey]

My haps and mbuna arent nearly as selective. lol I've feeding NLS thera A.

And yep, thats the guy that is gonna outgrow your tank. Don't feel bad, I have two of them as well and they will be rehomed soon. They didnt mention the size when I bought them, no surprise....

 

[Chris182]

I got to get rid of all 3 of them then and a few others I guess. Shame really as I like them all

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[Chris182]

A video of my tank guys. May help you identify those fish easier!

Cheers

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[WendiDell]

mfdrookie516;1259695]I feed my mbuna New Life Spectrum cichlid formula... exclusively. Nothing else. It has everything the fish need to stay healthy, grow, breed, and color up.[/U] You're right, meaty foods are a definite no-no for mbuna.

Just a quick side bar. But I love New Life Spectrum foods. When my Mbunas were little I found New Life Grow and they did sometimes overnight. Now I use the New Life Cichlid formula. They eat it like piranha , even my picky eaters inhale it.
It's the first food I ever used that does what the label claims. I'm hooked, ooh sorry bad choice of word there, I'm sold. I'll never feed with anything else.
New Life has a huge line for all kinds of fish.
I'm really happy to hear someone with your experience using the same food. Means I made a good choice for my Mbunas
Thank you

 

[Chris182]

Does anyone know how to use these light settings? Sorry if it's a dumb question!

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[MissMolly]

As long as you're feeding your fish what they can eat in a few minutes, twice a day is not a problem. I think the placement of the tank has a lot to do with the algae growth seeing how it is such a pretty green. Natural light will feed algae so fast. I have curtains I close during the mid day hours because it shines directly on the tank and open them late afternoon. Is there a way you can block the sunlight from the tank for a few days and see if that is the source.? Remove an obvious spot of algae, and during those few days if it doesn't grow back or slows down (process of illimination) that may be a solution.